dan hellie has a special guest who's more than ready for saturday. >> wendy brought it up, 119 days, but everybody is ready for hockey. there's going to be a scrimmage down here. the reg hear season opens on the road in tampa before coming back for the home opener. joining mess owner ted lee onon. after missing 34 games, did you ever really fear this wouldn't be a season at all? >> no, i thought we were in it together. the association we aren't that stressful. the players wanted to play, the owners wanted to play, but it was just trying to get to the point both sides were comfortable. >> reporter: why does hockey miss nor games than any other major sport? >> if i had the answer to that, i would have fixed it sooner. the good news is we have a long-term deal. i feel pretty good about the way the system will work, and so i think we'll last for ten years. we want to put all of that behind us, and now focus on plays. as you said, we open saturday in tampa, and come back here on tuesday. tonight we'll have a bunch of people in. we're trying something new. we're just opening the doors and